COVID-19 Update from Faith Baptist Bible College, July 17

July 17, 2020

July 17, 2020

It’s been a busy summer here on the campus of Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary. Renovations continue on classrooms in Gray Hall, paint projects are complete, multiple landscaping projects are finished, and parking lot repairs are wrapping up as we hit the homestretch.

It’s been four months since students went home early for the spring semester due to the coronavirus outbreak—likely the longest time we’ve ever been without students on campus at Faith. Their long-awaited return is drawing nearer, now just a little more than a month away. We invite you to view our web page for new and returning students for the full Orientation Week schedule. Most of the information you will need, including frequently asked questions, can be found here.

There are still many uncertainties about the 2020-21 academic year at colleges and universities across our country as the coronavirus continues. Our COVID-19 Task Force has been meeting regularly, logging countless hours as they work through mountains of details. Here are some of the topics the COVID-19 Task Force is discussing:

• Healthcare—includes COVID-19 guidelines and practices for students, what happens when someone develops symptoms of the coronavirus, what happens when someone tests positive, the designation of sickbays, quarantine procedures, self-screening, and much more.
• Academics—includes safety protocols for staff and faculty, classroom setups and instructional procedures, cleaning procedures, and what happens when a professor or student becomes ill, among other items.
• Athletics—includes procedures for athletes prior to their return, practice protocols, travel guidelines, gameday procedures, the use of equipment, locker room procedures, and much more.
• Events—includes campus-wide policies for social distancing, procedures for indoor and outdoor events such as concerts and athletics, policies and procedures for visitors to campus, and more.
• Dining Services—includes layouts for the dining hall, procedures for the buffet line, cleaning procedures, signage, and more.
• Dorm Life—includes cleaning practices, dorm policies, COVID-19 screening and testing, exposure and illness procedures, and more.
• Visitors—includes guidelines and procedures for all campus visitors.
• Workplace—includes cleaning procedures, wellness guidelines, expectations for staff and faculty, and more.

As you may imagine, the administrative challenges at such a time as this are daunting. The mission of our COVID Task Force is to provide policies and procedures to keep our students, faculty, and staff healthy, with the goal of completing the entire school year on-campus, all while creating a college experience that is as close to normal as possible.

The COVID Task Force will be wrapping up their meetings and making decisions soon. We will communicate all of those details through a formal announcement and a new web page called “Flight Path 2020.”

Despite the challenges, we look forward to the hustle and bustle of a new school year, the change of leaves on campus to their brilliant shades of red and orange, and a return to normalcy…or at least as close to normal as we can get in the year 2020!